The panel of dragons is made up of key figures from the UK food and drink industry and includes industrial, governmental, professional and media representatives.
Konstantina Karagika
Scientific & Regulatory Affairs Senior Manager UK & Ireland, Coca-Cola
Konstantina has over eighteen years’ experience in the food industry including innocent drinks. In 2022, she moved to Coca-Cola as Senior Manager for Scientific & Regulatory Affairs. Her responsibilities include leading regulatory advocacy initiatives andensuring compliance of formulations, ingredients, products, packages, labels, claims, and communications for the UK and Ireland. At innocent drinks she was heading the food regulatory, safety and emerging risk’s function. Prior to this, she held a number of technical roles in several food businesses, ranging from ready meals to nuts and speciality ingredients. She has gained broad experience in supply chain and technical operations, suppliers auditing on a global scale, and technical operations with food service customers.
Rosemary Wilkinson
Marks and Spencer
Rose is Head of Technology of the Ambient Snacking and Celebration category, responsible for the food safety, quality, integrity and sustainability of her products. In addition to category responsibility, Rose is strategic lead for the recruitment, training and graduate programme for the M&S technology function.
Guvinder Abdel-Hady
Category Technical Manager, Sainsburys
Guvinder has over 15 years of experience working across multiple retailers in the Technical & Development functions. As a Category Technical Manager at Sainsburys she is responsible for food safety and integrity, supplier relationships, technical innovation and consistent quality products within the Sainsburys brand. Guvinder also leads the Assistant Technologist programme. The two-year programme allows food science or equivalent graduates to get a breadth of experience across all areas of retail.
Dr. Natalie Chiu
Open Innovation Lead, Mondelez
Natalie is the European Open Innovation Lead for Mondelez International. Her role includes scouting for innovative technologies and actively supports projects and partnerships with external partners to drive breakthrough innovation. Natalie also manages the Mondelez collaborative training partnership and the Food Consortium PhD programme.
Sam Millar
Director of Quality, Warburtons
Sam Millar is the Director of Quality for Warburtons Ltd, responsible for product and packaging quality, food safety and regulatory compliance. Sam is a Board Director of the Federation of Bakers Ltd, has served as a Board Director for the Cereals & Grains Association (AACCI) and is a Fellow of the IFST as well as the Academy of the International Association for Cereal Science and Technology (ICC).
Martin MacFarlane
R&D Director, Unilever
Martin has worked for Unilever for 19 years. He originally focussed on ensuring the safety of products and manufacturing for consumers, employees and the environment for various products across Personal Care and Foods. He then moved to Ice Cream Design, developing recipes and technologies to give new consumer benefits and experiences. Martin is now Head of R&D for the Europe, AMESAA and NASEA regions in the Pepsi Lipton Joint Venture.
Elif Buyukpamukcu
Material Sciences and Data Science Group Leader, Nestlé Product Technology Centre Confectionery
Elif has been with Nestlé for over 20 years. Food analytical chemist by training, she has held different roles withinthe R&D organisation across Europe. With her passion for innovation, delivering great tasting products and people development she is currently leading a team of scientists driving the translation of science and technology into confectionery innovations.
Claire White-McKay
Food Development Manager, Quorn Foods
Claire is a Product Development specialist and passionate food-lover, with 14 years of experience in the food industry leading innovation projects from conception to implementation. She worked for Mars Petcarein European and Global roles developing treats for dogs and cats for brands such as Pedigree®, Dreamies™ and Temptations™. Now at Quorn Foods she is responsible for translating consumer wants and needs into measurable attributes and unpicking significant technical complexity in order to deliver meat-free food products that delight and nourish consumers. Claire is excited by the magic of mycelium and the potential impact we can all have on the planet by switching to eating this sustainable, nutritious andversatile protein source. She is a hands-on leader and thrives on activity that demands resourcefulness, collaboration and the realisation of ideas that are ‘beyond imagination’
Bethan Grylls
Editor, Food Manufacture
Bethan Grylls is the Editor of Food Manufacture, which commands the largest audience of any online platform dedicated solely to readers working in the UK food and drink manufacturing industry. Prior to joining Food Manufacture (part of the William Reed group), she led New Food Magazine’s content team. She has been working as a professional writer for more than a decade and was responsible for organising one of the world’s largest virtual, scientific food and beverage conferences in 2021. Bethan is a regular speaker at food and drink events and chairs Food Manufacture’s esteemed Business Leaders Forum, she is also the host for the brand’s prestigious food and drink awards, and a well-respected thought-leader in her field. Bethan serves as a technical advisor on the Clean Label Project’s UK board and is a judge for EcoTrophelia 2023. She is also responsible for National Butcher’s Week, a social event operated under the Meat Trades Journal brand, which includes a judging role on the affiliated Butcher’s Shop awards.
Laetitia Rocha
Internal Capability Snr Manager, Global R&D
Laetitia currently leads a cultural transformation initiative which spans Global R&D and PepsiCo, anchored in its pep+ strategy for Positive Choices. An R&D professional and a Registered Nutritionist, Laetitia has managed a broad range of projects from front-end innovation, technology innovation, M&A to product launch, in Europe and Africa, for several FMCG.
Chris Gilbert-Wood
Chair of External Affairs, IFST
Liz Ashton
Commercial Director, Campden BRI
Liz’s career spans 30 years in the food and media industries. Within food her focus has been on marketing and R&D in the manufacturing and retail space. Latterly Liz started a global company in digital media working for the BBC, TEDTalks, the FT etc. She has a commercial pragmatic approach to doing business and understands the issues faced by a start-up or a large company. Her time at Campden BRI has been spent focused on corporate reputation, looking to deliver various initiatives across the business and ensuring we serve our clients and members in the best way possible. Liz is also a food scientist.’
Preliminary judging
All entries will be carefully reviewed and then shortlisted by a panel of judges with expertise in new product development:
Vince Craig
Managing Director, Meadowbrae Technical Services
Julian Cooper
Owner/ Director, 342 Consulting Limited
Simon Chattock
Head of Vendor Assurance, Compass Group UK & Ireland Ltd
Carol Phillips
Retired Professor
Kelvin Thomson
Consultant and Workplace Assessor/Trainer, Pinnacle Food and Drink Services
Steve Timms
Commercial Development Manager, Food & Nutrition, Brenntag UK & Ireland
If you are an IFST member and would like to be put yourself forward as a preliminary judge, please contact us.